Epic Records Chairman Antonio "L.A." Reid has apologized to the family of slain civil rights figure Emmett Till, and his label is working to remove from circulation a remix of the track "Karate Chop" by Atlanta rapper Future that included a vulgar sexual reference by Lil Wayne invoking Till's name.

Epic representatives said they would make efforts to remove the remix from the Internet and replace it with a version without Lil Wayne's unprintable reference to Till. Till was the 14-year-old African American from Chicago who was tortured and killed in 1955 after reportedly whistling at a white woman during a visit to family in Mississippi. An all-white jury acquitted two white men, including the woman's husband.

The case thrust civil rights issues into the spotlight when Till's mother insisted on an open-coffin funeral service that allowed mourners, and the media, to see the condition of his body.